Tony Walters Crime Prevention Officer Fareham
We installed our first Mosquito in the Locksheath District Centre which is a shopping centre near Fareham. They were suffering the usual problems of gatherings of large quantity of youths and the associated anti social behaviour that goes with that. The results have been quite dramatic with youths vacating the area within minutes. We are also impressed with its coverage seeming to be effective beyond 20metres. The management of the centre are considering extending the coverage with further devices. They are also being used in schools in our county to prevent out of hours gatherings.

Sarah Ward
PC 1623
Regarding the Mosquito apparatus that we have recently been using in our area, this is just a note to say that we have been extremely pleased with it.

We have also had a positive reaction regarding its use from members of the public. In short, it has been an all-round success.

Midcounties Co-operative - Loss prevention trials
Mosquito trial
These second set of results show that the trial has been successful and there has been positive feedback and enthusiasm from the stores.

Mosquito plan to move on hooligans
A controversial mosquito device is to be introduced to deter trouble-making youngsters gathering near a Preston street.

Police and community leaders are hoping to erect the device, which works by emitting high pitched sounds, near one end of Janice Drive, Fulwood.

A wall which forms the gable end of a home lies at that end of the road and is a well known gathering point for dozens of youngsters.

Coun David Hammond, councillor for the Greyfriars ward, said residents have complained of night-time noise and abusive language.

Police have got funding for the £500 device and expect it to be in place by the end of January.

Coun Hammond said: "There is a certain amount of anti-social behaviour and problems which happen down there.

"It is an area where kids like to congregate at night."

Mosquito devices, which emit high pitched noises of 70 to 80 decibels have been steeped in controversy.

The makers say only those under 25 can hear the sounds, but there have been concerns they do not distinguish between troublemakers and normal children and may be bad for youngsters' health.

Insp John Ainsworth, of Lea Police, added: "The answer to the concerns is that these work, as long as they are tried with other methods as
well."

Preston's first mosquito device was erected near shops on the Larches estate in June last year.

Insp Ainsworth said in April and May 2006, police received 60 call outs to the shops.

In the two months after the device was introduced they received just three.

Source: lep.co.uk

Mosquito Units Force Teens To Buzz Off

It seems as if businesses have tried everything to rid themselves of pesky teenage loiterers--the ones who use foul language, constantly bum cigarettes, shoplift, and make older customers feel uncomfortable. For a time, primarily in the United Kingdom, businesses used fluorescent lights outside storefronts to accentuate acne and other blemishes on teenagers' skin so that they would not want to hang out there. Then, they tried blasting classical music in hopes that the sophisticated tunes would disagree so much with the youths' grungy palates that it would similarly drive them away. Now, a couple of cities in the United Kingdom are using yet another teen-deterrent to clear their store entrances of loiterers. And this time, it seems to be working.

Some businesses in England and Wales have installed gadgets called Mosquito units outside their stores. These small, sonic devices emit a certain high-pitched frequency of sound that is supposedly heard only by people under the age of 21, but not by anyone over the age of 30. The "chirps" of sound are highly annoying and uncomfortable to those who can hear them. Even some homeowners have installed Mosquito units outside the entrances of their homes or on street corners in order to disperse unruly teenagers, and all parties involved (including the teenagers) agree that the devices are effective.

However, although they are effective at dispersing teenagers, it is unclear whether these devices actually prevent crime. Business owners seem to agree that they make more money when their customers are comfortable and free of the shenanigans of teenage loiterers. And perhaps homeowners can sleep better knowing that no pack of noisy teens is gathering on the sidewalk outside their homes. But critics of the Mosquito units are quick to point out that the only thing they actually do is disperse teens; they don't actually prevent crime, nor do they offer any long-term solutions for keeping kids off the streets. Their net effect is to simply shift the loitering to another location.

Teenagers are aware that they are stereotyped every day, and undoubtedly they resent any more isolation than they already feel. So maybe what unruly teenagers actually need are more safe and positive places to hang out, rather than a list of more places that they are not welcome. Sports leagues, teen centers, afterschool activities, and volunteer programs offer more productive alternatives to prevent crime among teenagers.

Still, if crime is rampant enough on one particular street corner or at one particular business, a storeowner in South Wales offers his explanation of the device to teenage loiterers in a way that could avoid exacerbating tension:

"I told them it was to keep the birds away because of the bird flu epidemic."

National Crime Prevention Council

Evaluation of Trial Mosquito™ sited at CO-OP London Road, Macclesfield

We were regularly called to the shop in relation to nuisance youths congregating, intimidating members of the public and "persuading" them to purchase alcohol, and also incidents of violence, including one where a shop customer's car was bricked.

The device was installed and very quickly it became apparent that it was highly effective at dispersing youths from the area.

Both staff at the store and customers have noticed that the youths are not congregating anymore and that the amount of calls made to the police have greatly diminished. The amount of shoplifting has decreased also.

Such has been the success of the device that COOP have since purchased 6 mosquito's for their problem stores, one of which is now permanently installed at London Road.

Whilst the youths have moved on dispersal reduces the problem by approx 10% We are very rarely called to London Road

Thankyou very much for allowing us to trial one of the units

Download report

PCSO 7068 Simon Martindale
Macclesfield Neighbourhood Policing Unit

As a beat officer working in Bournemouth I had to deal with the problem of Underage drinking and antisocial behavior that regularly occurred at the rear of a community centre. We installed the mosquito system at the community centre for a trial period of approximately 8 weeks. From the moment the system was deployed I was very impressed with its effectiveness. The rear of the community centre became deserted and therefore all the antisocial behavior problems ceased. Hope this evaluation is useful to you.
PC Mike May 2093

It is excellent new that the mosquito has been a huge success story for the Coop and is having a significant impact in attacking the problem of crowds gathering around our stores.

Sunwin Security has been promoting the Mosquito since December 2005 and this feed-back is one of many positive reports that we have received from our customers.

Fantastic invention.

Stefan Trbovic
Manager Sunwin Security

Midcounties Co-operative
Mosquito trial
The results show that the trial has been successful and there has been positive feedback and enthusiasm from the stores. No negative feedback or complaints have been received by either store from members of the public.
Kevin Brown
Group General Manager

South Yorkshire Police - Press Release - Rotherham
Rotherham has become the first town in South Yorkshire to use a Mosquito™ to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour - and with amazing success.

But this Mosquito™ has a different sting to the little insects that blight our annual holidays.

The Mosquito™ is the latest weapon in the fight against anti-social behaviour, one of the priorities in the Safer Rotherham Partnership's strategy for reducing crime and disorder across the borough.

It uses complex, high frequency sound to chase away annoying teenagers who gather on street corners, on shopping parades and in other problem areas.

One has been in use in Rotherham for about a month now, and the results have been quite dramatic.

Over the last 12 months, police have been called to the location, on average, once a day as a result of complaints about young people climbing on roofs, using doorways as toilets, drinking alcohol and generally causing a nuisance in the area.

"It has been a real problem area for us," said Crime Reduction Officer, Pc Barry Regan, from South Yorkshire Police in Rotherham. "We have even had reports of people in cars dropping their kids off there and of others giving the youngsters alcohol."

"But since the Mosquito™ went in at the beginning of March we have not received a single complaint from that area," said Barry.

The Mosquito™ works by emitting a very high ultra sonic tone that, although completely harmless, is extremely annoying.

But, because the frequency is so high, the vast majority of people over the age of 25 have lost the ability to hear it. The longer someone is exposed to the sound, the more annoying it becomes.

Extensive trials have shown that teenagers are acutely aware of the Mosquito™ and move away from the area where it is deployed within a few minutes. But, because it takes a minute or so for the sound to make any impact - even on teenagers - genuine visitors who are only in the area for a minute or so are unlikely to suffer any consequences.

The Mosquito™ is easily fitted, works off just a 12 volt power supply and can easily be moved from location to location. It is usually fitted with a timing device that switches the unit on intermittently at times when problem youngsters gather in a particular area. It can even be used on conjunction with a portable CCTV camera to protect the unit and identify offenders.

"Currently we have two of the units in Rotherham," said Barry "and the results of our first deployment are particularly encouraging. We shall certainly be trialling the units in other parts of the borough where youth nuisance is a problem."

"Although we have only had the units for a few weeks I have already received a number of requests from people wanting us to deploy one in their area," he added.

One of the eight priorities in the Safer Rotherham Partnership's strategy is to reduce the incidence and impact of anti-social behaviour in the borough.

The target is to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the total number of individuals reporting anti-social behaviour to the police or the local authority by March 2008, and to reduce criminal damage by 5 per cent by the same date.

07 April 2006

Lincolnshire Police

It is still presently sited at an old folks complex and is giving them a long awaited respite from ASB.

Colin Hill PC 879
Lincolnshire Police

ASB Officer - South Holland District Council

Torbay County Council

The Mosquito™ has given us excellent results. We sited the equipment in the Coach Parking section on one of our Multi-Storey car parks. A local hotelier has continually complained over a period of at least two years about the constant problems of youths on skateboards, BMX bikes etc in this area. We used to have to attend site at least six times a day during the school holidays. We even went to the extent of bringing in a private security firm to permanently cover the evenings and holiday afternoons, however due to budget restrictions this has now ceased. The hotelier went as far as reporting us to the HSE due to the risk of injury to the youths from their behaviour. As you can imagine, this has cost us tens of thousands of pounds over the last two years in staffing and remedial works to move on the youths.

Since installing the Mosquito™, the reduction in the number of incidents reported to us has dramatically reduced. We even received an e-mail from our number one complainant stating that he had experienced the quietest holiday period ever. The only problem is that the youths have moved on and are now causing trouble elsewhere!

Make arrangements for its return, never. Just send me an invoice for this one and hopefully, next financial year, I shall be placing orders for additional units.

Thanks,

Rob Harmes
Senior Parking Operations Inspector

Renfrewshire County Council

I can confirm that we used the Mosquito™ unit for a two week period. the unit was mounted above one of the Town Hall front doors. These external doors are mainly fire emergency escape doors, plus the main entrance door, and all are recessed into the front of the building. As a result children and teenagers of various ages tend to congregate in the recesses. This results in problems with litter and graffiti. Given that the Mosquito™ unit test period was mid winter, and not during the summer school holidays, the problem was not so great. However on several occasions teenagers did gather around the entrance where the Mosquito was located. When switched on we noticed that the teenagers tended to relocate to another door away from the unit. So although the problem was not entirely resolved the test did show that when activated the unit was effective. The next stage for us is to decide whether or not to purchase several units for permanent installation at the front entrance. Thank you again for allowing us to trial one of your units.

Brian Hector

Spar

A DEVICE outside a Newport shop is helping disperse gangs of anti-social yobs peacefully.
For years the Spar shop in Caerleon Road was plagued by youths who hung around outside smoking, drinking, hurling abuse at customers and throwing crates at passing cars.
But now the louts are taking flight - thanks to a new `Mosquito™' device only tested at a handful of shops in the UK.

The black box device, fixed to an outside wall by police, emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost nobody older than 30.
It is designed so to irritate young people that after several minutes they cannot stand it and go away.

Spar shop manager Sue Oates, 54, hailed it a success as instead of phoning the police three times a week, staff had not dialled 999 for over a month.

"Around 20 teenagers aged 16-plus would often hang around outside the shop creating a lot of noise," she said. "Customers felt intimidated when they came down in the evening. It was very frightening for them and had a knock-on effect on trade.

"But since the Mosquito™ has been there the number of youths has dropped dramatically so staff and customers feel a lot safer."

Mrs Oates said six of her staff, who were under the age of 21, could hear the noise.
"They say it's a very high pitched noise that is quite irritating when they are outside the shop," she said.

Installed about two months ago, Mrs Oates is hoping the device will continue to keep gangs away. "It has been very successful," she said.

"But it is still the winter so there are not as many kids hanging about outside. We'll have to wait and see how effective it is in the summer."

Andrew Beese, 20, who works part time in the shop, described the Mosquito™ sound as "uncomfortable" and "irritating".

"It's what you'd expect a dog whistle to sound like - a really high-pitched whine.
"I wouldn't want to sit round that noise constantly, it's not something you can just ignore."
More than 100 stores and some councils have placed orders for the device, which was invented by Howard Stapleton, of Merthyr Tydfil.

He came up with the idea after reading how hearing levels changed with age.
It costs about £500, and the noise cannot be heard inside the shop.

A Gwent Police Authority report praised the effect it had had in Caerleon Road, and said it would recommend the device for use in other areas of Gwent

Newport Argus – 30th January 2006